“MR. WORF, FIRE!”: The Story of the Most Daring Cliffhanger in Star Trek ‘Next Generation’ History:

Ron Moore, Jonathan Frakes and more reveal how writing themselves into a corner for “Best of Both Worlds” changed Trek forever: “All of us were quite thrilled they had the balls to leave Picard on the Borg cube.”

I remember watching this episode in first run and my whole family going, “Whoa” after this ending. The clip still gives me chills.

And it is also very cool to see Marina Sirtis after spending four days with her on a studio set at Riverside Stages in Sylmar California filming the courtroom scenes for Inalienable: The Movie, which was written by Walter Koenig. She was a hoot to talk with, constantly wanting to engage me in political debate (as did Koenig) and dishing some behind-the-scenes Star Trek cast stories.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 773.

MARK LEVIN DECLARES “OPEN WARFARE” ON JOHN BOENER AND “ALL OF HIS COMRADES”:

“Obviously, the lessons of Eric Cantor’s humiliating loss have not resonated with Boehner, McCarthy, and Scalise,” Levin said. “The only solution is for Conservatives to husband their resources and target these three in the coming Republican primaries. Conservatives need to find serious candidates and raise funds nationwide to defeat them. Let them fight for their political careers as our response to their disgusting and pathetic behavior.”

Well, it would get their attention between now and November 2016.

GOP LEADERSHIP EXACTS RETRIBUTION: House Speaker John Boehner and his “leadership” team are exacting retribution against numerous conservative GOP members who have bucked leadership on a variety of issues, most notably voting against Boehner as Speaker, and against Obamatrade.  The most recent victim is Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), who has been removed from his chairmanship of the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Meadows was also one of the 25 Republicans who did not vote for Boehner to be speaker at the start of the 114th Congress, and he has often shown a willingness to vote with the conservative wing of the party. It appears as if the rule vote, in which 34 Republicans went against GOP leadership, was the final straw.

The punishment is yet another indication of the intensifying clash between conservatives and more moderate Republicans in the House GOP conference.

Trent Franks, who was one of the three House Freedom Caucus members kicked off the whip team earlier in the week, told CQ Roll Call on Wednesday that “there’s a polarization taking place” between conservatives and leadership, as right-wing voices are now being locked out of strategy sessions with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

It’s basically a purge being conducted against those who don’t toe Boehner’s line. There’s a reason why conservative Americans don’t trust Congress–even under the control of the GOP.  The Establishment GOP treats the party’s conservative/tea party wing as a political enemy to be defeated, rather than respected colleagues with whom they have occasional disagreements.

Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), who was among the 34 Republicans to vote against the rule last week, said Boehner hasn’t spoken to him about his vote. He accused GOP leaders of catering too much to Democrats at the expense of losing support from conservatives.

“This is the second or third time that they negotiated with Democrats and then Democrats go back on their word. And they still don’t come to the conservatives,” Labrador said at an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation Tuesday morning. “We can help them with this process.”

“Voting against the rule is almost like committing a capital crime here,” Labrador said of the leadership’s attitude.

Yep. To have a winning Republican “team,” there needs to be leadership that is open to all points of view, and doesn’t banish its brightest based on principled disagreement.

RELATED: Conservative Rep: It Takes ‘Moral Courage’ To Stand Up To GOP Leadership.

Scott Perry, 53, is a sophomore congressman from Dillsburg, Penn. Exuding a humble intensity and a mindfulness of his oath to the U.S. Constitution, his daily orientation in public office means he takes no vote for granted. 

“It’s a fight every day,” Perry says in this 22-minute exclusive video interview with The Daily Caller. . . .This interview was filmed June 10, prior to a series of divisive trade votes in the House. Perry, believing his leadership was mistaken on what was best for America on these votes, felt the wrath of opposing the Republican leadership. He was one of the 34, 54, 158 and 50 Republicans who challenged the prevailing pressure by GOP leaders to grant President Obama new trade powers at the risk of eroding national sovereignty. . . .

Yet, Republican leaders, increasingly governing by fear, risk continuing dissension and disarray. Evidence is building that Republicans, who are failing to persuade those members with differing opinions, and catering to monied interests in Washington, are alienating Americans who voted for them.

These are good members of Congress (there are some), and their idealism is being crushed by Mafia-like, inside-the-Beltway interests.

RUNNING OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Venezuela’s Economy Spirals.

U.S. company PBF is buying the Chalmette oil refinery, a “joint venture” between Exxon Mobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. The sale appears to be, at least in part, an attempt by Venezuela to round up some cash quickly, after the country spent large amounts of its reserves in recent months.

As the FT puts it, “The deal, while modest in size, should offer some minor reprieve to Venezuela’s battered coffers.” But a sale like this doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the country’s future, no matter what short-term relief it might bring. As we saw with Greece a few months ago, selling off fixed assets is a one-off move that indicates a country is in long-term trouble. Venezula’s economy has been in a downward spiral for a while now. This exchange indicates that its chances of pulling out of that spiral are getting increasingly slim. That’s a tragic prospect for a country that should be much richer than it is.

“Bad luck.” Socialism always starts with the same bogus promises, and it always ends with the same lame excuses.

SO HE’S ALREADY DONE MORE THAN OBAMA: Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio to send armed volunteers to protect churches.

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HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW DEMOCRATS ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO “SILENCE” THEIR OPPOSITION? O’Malley: ‘I’m pissed,’ calls for gun control, NRA silencing.

It’s the oldest civil rights group in America, founded by Union Army officers after the Civil War. It had nothing to do with the shooting in Charleston, but that doesn’t stop O’Malley from launching a blood libel, just like they did after the Gabby Giffords shooting.

But then, it’s always that way.

BUT I THOUGHT HE WAS A RACIST?: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to send armed volunteers to protect black churches.

Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio will send armed volunteers into 60 predominantly black churches Sunday in response to the shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church.

Arpaio said he was responding to a request from Rev. Jarrett Maupin, who USA Today reported is a progressive Baptist preacher and civil-rights advocate, to provide the volunteers.

Arpaio said Maupin told him he was worried about racist white supremacists in the area, according to USA Today. “I am the elected sheriff of this county. He asked me to help, and I’m going to help,” Arpaio said.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Will Obama Intimidate Roberts, Supreme Court On ObamaCare? He’s certainly trying.

We’ve seen this movie before — reruns of President Obama’s rhetorical efforts to vilify the court whenever it threatens to disagree with him, as it did in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the decision in 2010 that precluded the government from regulating political expenditures by nonprofit corporations.

Less than a week after the Citizens decision came down, with the justices sitting directly in front of him in the House of Representatives chamber, Obama addressed the nation in a State of the Union address and scolded the court for its decision.

He charged, inaccurately, that the decision would allow American elections to be “bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign entities.”

This transparent effort to intimidate the court, and especially Chief Justice John Roberts, was repeated in the days leading up to the court’s 2012 decision on the constitutionality of ObamaCare’s individual mandate.

On April 2, 2012, before the court issued its ruling, Obama seemed to warn the court, saying he hoped that it would not take an “unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”

Unprecedented? In 1935, the same court threw out as unconstitutional both the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act, two main pillars of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 anti-depression recovery program, saying that they impermissibly expanded presidential power.

Obama added that if the court were to overturn the mandate, and thus ObamaCare, it would be an unambiguous act of judicial activism: “An unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.”

When the court upheld ObamaCare by a 5-4 vote with Roberts siding with the four liberal justices, some thought that he, seeing himself as responsible for the court’s legacy, had been affected by the administration’s threatening rhetoric and wanted to keep the court out of the political cross-hairs during the fall election.

And some — see pretty much any Internet comment section — thought it meant the NSA had dirt on Roberts. So much for boosting the Court’s position.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Accused is guilty’: Campus rape tribunals punish without proof, critics say. Yes, “critics say” that because it’s true.

LIFE AMONG THE RULING CLASS: “The men and women responsible for running our government happen to live in one of the most racially segregated big cities in the United States.”

Plus: “Of course, D.C. isn’t alone in its racial segregation. Plenty of big cities are similarly sorted.” One-party Democratic rule just hasn’t gone on long enough to fix that, yet. . . .

FLASHBACK: As Governor, Bill Clinton Honored Confederacy On Arkansas Flag.

Will anyone in the press ask Hillary about this? Of course not. Nobody in the press asks Hillary about anything.

WELL, IF NIDAL HASSAN AT FORT HOOD WAS “WORKPLACE VIOLENCE,” THEN I GUESS THIS CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS “WORSHIP-PLACE VIOLENCE.” FBI Director Says Charleston Shooting Not Terrorism. “The Bureau has a rather large and ever-evolving code of definitions for the various kinds of terrorism and terrorist acts.” Indeed it does.

MORE ON WATERLOO: I should note that Bernard Cornwell has both a novel and a history out.